Vision Screening for school age children an oppurtunity for early detection

Ertekin Y. H., Tekin M., Uludağ A., Cevizci S., Şahin E. M.

20th Wonca Europe Conference 2015, İstanbul, Türkiye, 22 - 25 Ekim 2015, cilt.19, ss.284

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
  • Cilt numarası: 19
  • Basıldığı Şehir: İstanbul
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.284
  • Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Vision screening for school-age children: an opportunity for early detection

Yusuf Haydar Ertekin1, Murat Tekin1, Aysegul Uludag1, Sibel Cevizci2, Erkan Melih Sahin1

1Department of Family Medicine, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey

2Department of Public Health, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey

Background & AIM:

Pediatric vision screening is planned to detection children with vision disorders which are amblyopia, strabismus,

visual acuity and color blindness. Without early identify and control, children's vision disorders can lead to

permanent vision loss and teaching difficulties. A common approach to early identifying and controlling of vision

disorders in school children is vision screening by pediatricians or family physicians.

METHOD: This cross-sectional and descriptive design study was carried out in the autumn of 2013. Screening was

performed by family physicians using the Snellen Eye Chart, and Ishihara and Hirschberg tests after a detailed

preliminary training. The screening was conducted to identify visual acuity (VA), colour blindness (CB), amblyopia

(AMB) and strabismus (STR).

RESULTS: The study involved 945 female and 1,004 male participants (total 1,949) with an average age of 8.9 for

females and 9 for males, and 9 overall. The total prevalence of the screened ocular pathology was found to be

14.4 percent, while VA was detected to have a prevalence of 8.8 percent, CB 4.6 percent, AMB 5.6 percent and

STR 2.3 percent, in order of frequency.

The regression analysis revealed three times the STR risk in premature and post mature children; while the risk of

AMB was 345 times higher in people with VA and 6.8 times higher in people with STR. The risk of CB was found to

be 2.3 times higher among those who had had a caesarean birth.

CONCLUSIONS: The USPSTF recommends vision screening for all children at least once preschool children to

identify the presence of amblyopia or its risk factors. The results of our screening of school-age children lead us to

the opinion that the preschool screening program is not sufficient, or that screening should be repeated at school

age.

Keywords: Vision Screening, Family Physicians, Schools, Students, Prevalence, Cross-Sectional Studies